3rd big trade show may check out of Chicago

National Restaurant Association weighs options; chamber leader says city needs to come together to stop losses

November 19, 2009|By Kathy Bergen, Tribune reporter

Chicago's standing as a trade show center faces yet another challenge as the National Restaurant Association weighs whether to take its 2012 trade show elsewhere, according to sources close to the negotiations.

An exit by this McCormick Place star -- a top show here for more than a half-century -- would be a third brutal punch to the city, which in the last week lost two other shows.

The plastics industry trade show, a triennial event, announced Tuesday it will move its 2012 and 2015 shows to Orlando after nearly four decades in Chicago. And the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society last week said it would move its 2012 annual meeting to Las Vegas. Both cited the cost of doing business in Chicago as the major factor in their decisions.

Though restaurant show attendance fell 24 percent this year, to 54,000 exhibitors and potential buyers, the event still pumped an estimated $86 million into the local economy, the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau said. The show is committed to remain here in 2010 and 2011.

The bureau, which markets McCormick Place, declined to comment.

Juan Ochoa, chief executive of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, or McPier, which owns and operates McCormick Place, declined to characterize conversations with the restaurant association as negotiations. "We always speak to our customers," he said.

And, he said, he had not heard that the show was contemplating a move for 2012. "But we can't take anything for granted and we have a lot of work to do to be a more attractive location," he said. "We're fully committed to improve our product ... to ensure that we have the best possible chance of keeping this extremely important show here in our city."

Derrek Hull, a spokesman for the restaurant show, said, "I'm not aware of any discussion about moving the show as of right now."

"However, what I can tell you is that we've been through this before ... and the association and all our exhibitors continue to be very vocal," Hull said. "They continue to be concerned about the costs of doing business in Chicago and at McCormick Place."

In 2006, the association seriously contemplated a move for its 2008 show, but chose to stay after the city wrested labor work-rule changes from unions that work at McCormick Place.

On Wednesday top Chicago convention officials were talking with restaurant officials, according to one source close to the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Possible alternative locations include Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., the city's chief rivals in the convention business.

Jerry Roper, president and chief executive of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said he has heard rumblings about the potential for losing the show, but could not confirm that talks were under way.

But, he said, the city's business and labor communities need to band together to fight to keep the show.

Given the city's two losses in the last week, "every show is up for grabs," he said. "Once this momentum starts, there's no doubt that people feel they can get incentives by shopping around. So what we have to do is be extremely competitive."

A task force was convened Wednesday morning to review all aspects of doing convention business in Chicago. Those at the table included the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority; the convention bureau; representatives from the offices of the mayor, governor, Illinois House speaker and Illinois Senate president; labor leaders; show contractors; and hospitality industry leaders, including those representing hotels and restaurants.